OXFAM CASE STUDY

Separated group discussion of women was held in Jenggala Village, Lombok Utara district; women discussed about their vulnerability and
capacity to build resilience to flood disaster risk, Building District Resilience Project, 2011. (Yenny Widjaja / Oxfam)

INDONESIA CASE STUDY

Jenggalas women living close to disaster

Oxfam Indonesia has been working with local partner organisation

Koslata to change attitudes which leave people vulnerable to
disaster and to assist the community of Jenggala with disaster risk
reduction (DRR). The aim of DRR activities is to help the
community to better prepare for floods and landslides and to
reduce the negative impacts of such hazards. The programme has
sought to engage women in DRR activities both because womens
participation enables them to benefit from DRR activities, manage
their livelihoods and reduce food insecurities and because womens
exclusion deprives the projects of vital skills, knowledge and
capabilities which the women possess.

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INTRODUCTION
The village of Jenggala is located in the hilly North Lombok District of
West Nusa Tenggara in eastern Indonesia. The main livelihood of the
community is rice farming which is supplemented by cultivating bamboo,
coffee, corn, coconuts and bananas. Women take primary responsibility
for both cultivating the crops and trading them locally. However, these
livelihoods are threatened by frequent floods and landslides. Flooding
destroys homes, drowns livestock and inundates agricultural land
causing crop failure. Landslides cause deluges of mud and uproot trees,
which block access routes to hill-top gardens meaning that any crops
which survive the floods cannot be harvested before they spoil.

Since 2010 Oxfam Indonesia has been working with local partner
organisation Koslata to change attitudes which leave people vulnerable
to disaster and to assist the community of Jenggala with disaster risk
reduction (DRR). The aim of DRR activities is to help the community to
better prepare for floods and landslides and to reduce the negative
impacts of such hazards. DRR includes improving the communitys
knowledge about how to minimise the impact of floods and landslides on
life, property and livelihoods; conducting Participatory Capacities and
Vulnerability Assessments (PCVA); developing community action plans;
and organizing and training village disaster preparedness teams. Central
to all these activities is the empowerment of women and the
advancement of gender equality.

WOMEN AND DISASTERS

The programme has sought to engage women in DRR activities both
because womens participation enables them to benefit from DRR
activities, manage their livelihoods and reduce food insecurities and
because womens exclusion deprives the projects of vital skills,
knowledge and capabilities which the women possess. This is illustrated
by these examples:
In Jenggala it is usually women who labour in remote fields and hill-
top gardens. Landslides and floods obstruct access to these remote
locations compromising their personal safety and livelihoods.
However, this means that women often have a better understanding of
where floods and landslides are likely to occur. Mens roles are often
organisational or business-related so they are less aware of what
happens in the fields.
Although women are less likely to have access to weather-related
early warning systems or be informed about oncoming rains and
floods, social networks among women are strong. This means that
information can be disseminated in informal ways such as through
social gatherings and during conversations with friends and relatives.
In this way, essential information about disaster preparedness
reaches entire families who may not otherwise have benefited from
such knowledge.

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 Although gender discrimination frequently excludes women from
decision-making about community disaster response, their dominance
in the domestic sphere means they have more knowledge than men
about the production, preparation and distribution of food.
Additionally, their long-standing role as family carers means that they
are often very knowledgeable about medical care. This kind of
knowledge saves lives in emergency situations.
Women are also well placed to contribute to disaster recovery as they
often have several sources of income away from the farm. Expanding
these business opportunities is vital when natural disasters reduce
income from agricultural activities.

Promoting womens participation in DRR

Key steps were taken to support women to engage in DRR work in
Jenggala, for example, through joining village disaster preparedness
teams and womens self-help groups.
A stakeholder mapping exercise was conducted. Oxfam
encouraged partner Koslata to map actors in the community that do
and dont support womens initiatives. This fed into community
discussions.
Separate meetings were held for women and men. This created a
space for women to discuss their needs and vulnerabilities without
being silenced by men. The differences between mens and womens
needs were illuminated and women were able to make their voices
heard. In meetings where both men and women were present women
were especially encouraged to speak. When their thoughts and ideas
were listened to women gained confidence to express their needs in
other aspects of daily life.
Both men and women were introduced to concepts of gender
equality. Community meetings were used to raise both womens and
mens awareness of gender equality issues and womens rights. For
example, the groups explored womens and mens different
experiences, capacities and vulnerabilities, and the effect these have
on disaster preparedness.
Quotas were set for womens participation. A minimum quota of 30
per cent was set for womens participation in all DRR activities, to
ensure that women were not excluded from information and
knowledge about DRR.
Women were actively encouraged and supported to participate in
activities. Women learned about different DRR activities during
community meetings, and came to appreciate their own knowledge
and capacity. This realisation that they have a role to play in DRR,
and a corresponding growth in self-confidence, encouraged them to
get involved. They also discussed barriers to participation, and
gained support from each other to overcome these. Women who got
involved in activities at an early stage acted as positive role models,
and were encouraged to share information with other women.

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 Women were educated about early warning signs of disaster and
how to respond appropriately. This has facilitated womens
independent reactions to climate-related hazards, reduced their
reliance on men and strengthened womens belief in their own
capabilities. As women gained better knowledge about disasters,
men had greater respect for womens contribution to DRR activities.
Capacity building on leadership skills was targeted at women.
Women were supported to take on leadership positions and others
recognition of womens capacity to fulfil these roles has improved.
This has empowered women to engage in other civil society activities
in Jenggala. The inclusion of women in the management of DRR
activities creates a more accessible channel for other women in the
village to express their concerns and needs.
Influential men were targeted to gain their support. Koslata
identified influential men in the community and approached them to
gain their support to ensure the 30 per cent quota for womens
participation was met. They took time to explain why womens
participation was necessary.

Preparing to Respond to Disasters

Women in Jenggala have been enthusiastic about participating in and

leading DRR activities. They have shown great interest in acquiring
information about disaster preparedness and consider this knowledge to be
very important. In joining village disaster preparedness teams, they
identified how their skills can be used and why their contribution is
important. Their active engagement in such activities counteracts the
assumption that women are too busy to engage in extra work and training.
Sabarni is a housewife who volunteered to be a member of the village
disaster preparedness team. If a disaster occurs, she will work in the field
kitchen preparing food for those displaced from their homes by floods and
landslides. Her responsibilities include collecting food during the onset of a
disaster, preparing the food hygienically so as to limit the spread of
disease, and, most importantly, monitoring food supplies during the
immediate recovery period.
Sabarni also took the initiative to motivate her friends and neighbours to
prepare for possible disasters. Some were inspired to attend first aid
courses so they can assist in disaster response. Others were motivated to
plant trees in the hills near their farms so as to reduce the risk of landslides
occurring. By initiating discussions about disaster preparedness in informal
settings, Sabarni educates those in the village who would not otherwise
have access to such knowledge and information. Her social networks
provide valuable channels of communication among villagers.
Sabarni and other team members have also attended simulations of
disaster situations at the Jenggala administration offices. This gave them
the opportunity to practice their responses. Although the village disaster
preparedness team has not yet been called into action, Sabarni knows how
she must act when the next floods or landslides come.

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 In the aftermath of a disaster, the whole village will rely on the skills and
knowledge of the women of Jenggala for the distribution of food and
medical care. By recognising womens important role in disaster response,
both men and women in Jenggala increasingly value womens work. It is
the competence of women such as Sabarni who will ensure the survival of
disaster affected people and reduce the losses incurred by the whole
village.

However, despite these efforts, women do not enjoy equal access to

DRR activities. Those in certain positions in society are more able to
attend meetings, assume leadership roles, participate in disaster
simulations and trainings, or join village disaster preparedness teams.
Conditions which facilitate womens involvement include:
1. Prior membership of a community group, such as the natural bamboo
crafts group, womens business group or forest farmers group.
2. A source of income independent to that of her husband, such as
employment as an Integrated Health Service cadre.
3. Familial ties to local community leaders or those who hold a position
in the village governance structure.
4. A husband who has a more stable source of income, such as owning
land or working as a civil servant.

Courage is needed for women to be successful in securing their right to

be heard and to participate in and benefit from DRR activities. Even
when women join in with activities, they often still face resistance to their
participation. It is essential that they are supported by local organisations
and that they motivate each other to improve their knowledge of DRR, to
attend meetings and to keep moving forwards to become leaders of
change.

Continued group discussions among women to share their experiences

was an important means of maintaining their motivation, as was providing
information about womens rights. In addition, Oxfam encouraged
Koslata to nominate a gender focal person, to take on responsibility for
sharing information about gender equality, and to provide support to
womens initiatives.

Recovering livelihoods after disasters

While the men of Jenggala have tended to see the destruction of their
crops as the end of their agricultural commitments and therefore a reason
to stay at home, the women have been innovative and sought alternative
forms of income.
Several womens self-help groups have been established to support
women in these enterprises. By generating an income from a source which
is less vulnerable to destruction by weather-related disasters, awareness in
the village has been raised of womens power to support the village
economically in the aftermath of a disaster.
Enterprises which have been particularly successful include bamboo
handicrafts, coffee grinding and making dried banana chips. Processing

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 raw products into marketable goods increases their value. By working
together the women have increased bargaining power with wholesalers and
markets to receive a better price for their products. Additionally, in times of
crop failure members can take small loans from the womens groups in
order to buy new seeds or to use as working capital. The enterprises and
access to credit supported by these groups are particularly important for
small scale farmers whose entire agricultural livelihoods can be quickly
destroyed by natural disasters.
Mrs Mardi is the head of one such womens business group. She and the
other women in the group are responsible for organising and managing
production and distribution activities as well as finances. The womens
organisational skills are vital in the immediate response to disasters while
their entrepreneurship and innovation are essential in helping the
community to meet its economic needs after destructions of crops by floods
and landslides.
The success of the group has demonstrated to women and men in the
village that they already have the skills necessary to successfully take
leadership positions in village disaster preparedness teams and other civil
society organisations. These groups provide a space where women can
articulate and act on their own needs in relation to disaster recovery. By
supporting each other, women can independently address their own
vulnerability to disasters and can contribute to the economic resilience of
their families.

Challenges to womens effective participation

in DRR
Although womens involvement in activities has begun to gradually shift
attitudes about womens capabilities, they still face a number of
constraints to full participation. For example:
Many men in the village are not supportive of womens participation in
DRR because it is seen to change the status of women in the local
communitys social system. This means that women were often not
invited to or were purposefully excluded from meetings. Women
noted that despite this, they do want to attend the meetings.
Men consider women to be less intellectually and physically able than
men to take on leadership roles, make important decisions or even
understand the issues around DRR. When women tried to respond to
these challenges by asking their husbands to convey messages to
meetings, their comments were rarely passed on; the power of
knowledge lies in the hands of the men.
There is an assumption that women lack agency and therefore do not
need to know about disaster preparedness. As in everyday life in
Jenggala, women are expected to follow their husbands directions
following a disaster.
Women assume the double-burden of work, being responsible for
income-generation and domestic duties. This is used as an excuse to
legitimise mens exclusion of women from DRR activities.
Discrimination against women is particularly prevalent in the attitudes of
community figureheads, husbands, other members of village disaster
preparedness teams, and local and national government officials.

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However, the women of Jenggala have found support from a number of
other sources in their community including the village head, their parents,
members of womens groups and some male heads of village disaster
preparedness teams. The approach of actively seeking to engage men
with strategic positions in the village has helped to create this small, but
crucial, support network, and identify those men who do want to listen to
womens voices. Similarly, having quotas for womens participation has
ensured that women do have the opportunity to participate at some level.

CONCLUSION
The women of Jenggala village have had to contend with various forms
of gender inequality in order to improve the success of DRR activities. In
negotiating with the holders of authority and power, such as husbands,
community leaders, and traditional social institutions, the women faced
many challenges. Some of these were overcome, some continue to
reduce the effectiveness of the villages disaster risk reduction activities
and prevent womens participation.

Success has been seen in womens ability to gain control over their
livelihoods and increase their assets. By engaging in activities which
generate and diversify income sources, household vulnerability to
disaster-induced loss of livelihoods was reduced. Additionally, the
knowledge and skills the women learnt through participating in DRR
meetings and training will be vital if, or when, a disaster next occurs in
Jenggala. The empowerment women achieved through these activities
better enables them to contribute to the future disaster resilience of their
village. This has also led to incremental positive shifts in mens attitudes
towards women and the importance of their role in village DRR is
increasingly recognised, although it is still early days and it will take time
to achieve a fundamental shift in gender relations.

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 Oxfam GB May 2012

This paper was written by Yenny Widjaja and Hollie Carr. Oxfam GB
acknowledges the assistance of Adrienne Hopkins, Asmadi Medo, Dende
Noviyanthi, Gede Lilarsa, Ines Smyth, Johanna Stolze, Lalu Surya Karyanto and
Vu Minh Hai in its production. It is part of a series of papers and reports written
to inform public debate on development and humanitarian policy issues.

For further information on the issues raised in this paper please e-mail
policyandpractice@oxfam.org.uk.

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The information in this publication is correct at the time of going to press.

Published by Oxfam GB under ISBN 978-1-78077-091-8 in May 2012.

Oxfam GB, Oxfam House, John Smith Drive, Cowley, Oxford, OX4 2JY, UK.

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